Plans for Race Are a Go

As one racing organization after another circles the carcass of bankrupt CART, once America’s premier open-wheel motor racing sanctioning body, plans for the 30th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach -- a CART race -- are moving ahead as usual, Jim Michaelian, president and chief executive officer of the event, said Tuesday.

“On April 16, racing sounds will fill the streets of Long Beach, just as they have for the past 29 years,” Michaelian said. “The city wants what it has always had, open-wheel, open-cockpit racing with cars that look sleek and sound fast. And so do our sponsors and our fans.”

Michaelian’s comments were prompted by reports that Tony George and his Indy Racing League were considering bidding for CART’s assets, which include race contracts as well as safety equipment, rolling stock and a mobile hospital. Both organizations are based in Indianapolis and IRL executives examined CART’s books and assets last week.

The Long Beach race, considered the plum of CART’s international schedule, is owned by Dover Motorsports Inc. CART has a two-year contract to produce the race, which this year is scheduled for April 16-18 and is CART’s season opener, because the Feb. 22 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg has been canceled.

“I respect the fact that [the IRL] has the money, resources and motive to acquire CART, but it is hard to read just what it means,” Michaelian said. “It is not trivial. We can be certain of that.”

The IRL has been exclusively an oval-track series since George broke from CART in 1996, but George has always said he would welcome a road or street race, once the oval series was established. Fred Nation, IRL executive vice president, told Reuters that “starting in 2005, the IRL would have a limited number of them on the calendar.”

Long Beach, which annually draws around 90,000 spectators, has been the most successful non-oval race in the country since Chris Pook founded it in 1975.

Despite its success in Long Beach, CART announced last October that it had lost $78 million in the first nine months of 2003, and still owed prize money for last year’s series.

Before CART filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month, the only bidder for its assets was expected to be Open Wheel Racing Series, a group formed by car owners Gerald Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi and Kevin Kalkhoven. It originally announced an offer of 53 cents a share for CART stock -- about $8.2 million -- but after bankruptcy papers were filed, the offer was altered to acquire only certain assets for about $1.5 million, which would permit OWRS to run the 2004 CART series. With the addition of 2003 prize money owed, the purchase price was expected to reach around $3 million.

Stock in CART, which sold at $35 in 1999, has fallen to a few cents.

On Jan. 3, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Otte, in Lansing, Mich., set a deadline of Jan. 23 for any competing bids, with Jan. 28 the date for reviewing all bids.

“We continue to have complete confidence in our work and vision for the Champ Car World Series,” Gentilozzi said. “As the closing of the transaction progresses, Open Wheel will continue the planning process of the operational details required to conduct the 2004 Champ Car World Series.

“We’re resolute in our intent to return the series to its rightful place in the international motorsports arena.”

However, officials from California Speedway, owned by International Speedway Corp., which also owns Daytona International Speedway, became an interested party at the Dec. 30 hearing after revealing that they were owed $2.5 million in sanction fees after the cancellation of CART’s final 2003 race at Fontana. CART claimed the cancellation was made by ISC after wildfires caused a postponement of the 500-mile race Nov. 2, but speedway officials said it was CART that pulled the plug.

Then the IRL muddled the picture with its inspection of assets.

“CART’s racing organization decided to file bankruptcy and said they would not continue with the 2004 season,” Nation said. “Most of their assets went through the bankruptcy proceedings. We are a racing company, and they have racing equipment for sale. Most of the items are things we need.”

Like a contract for the Long Beach Grand Prix.

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Associated Press contributed to this report.